Comment by rglullis
2 days ago
I think the real question here is: if you are smart and can find the resources to "learn how to think", and if a "smart guy with access to AI tools" can perform as well as any other trained lawyer, then what is the point of going to a competitive school in the first place?
You can't become "smart" just like that and "learn to think". It takes years od dedicated effort to reach that stage. Getting into a competitive school takes just that - years of dedicated effort.
> "smart guy with access to AI tools" can perform as well as any other trained lawyer
You are seriously understating the ability of a trained lawyer and overstating the ability AI tools.
No, I am not saying that a smart person will outperform a trained lawyer because of the AI tools.
What I am saying is that going to schools no longer is the only way for smart people to be able to do the job of a lawyer.
Going to school was never the only way for smart people to be able to do the job of a lawyer. Law is like consulting and finance in that the “school” part is mostly filtering and socialization and signaling. The actual education is maybe like 1 year of the three years people spend in law school.
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My prediction would be that the overlap between people who carry around a computer to answer any questions that come for them in real time and the people who put in effort to learn to think must be approaching zero. You become smart by doing the hard work of thinking for yourself, not by outsourcing your mental capacity.
This assumes that LLMs can only be used as an oracle, and smart people can leverage LLMs to do a lot more than that.